About Michèle

Michèle A’Court is a stand-up comedian, writer, actor and event MC / kaiwhakataki. Michèle was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the 2023 New Year’s Honours for services to comedy and entertainment.

Winner of “Female Comedian of the Decade” at the 2010 NZ Comedy Guild Awards and the 2015 Reilly Award for Excellence in Comedy, Michèle’s international experience as a stand-up comedian includes work in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

Her television drama credits include Brokenwood Mysteries (2023), Go Girls (2013) and Shortland St (2008-2009). She has made regular appearances on the hit comedy show 7Days since it began in 2009, and as a guest host on Three’s The Project. She is also a highly sought-after event host, conference facilitator and after-dinner speaker.

Originally trained as a journalist, Michèle has written two bestselling books: Stuff I Forgot To Tell My Daughter (2015) and How We Met (2018), both published by Harper Collins. She has been an opinion writer since 2008 and currently writes a weekly column for the NZ Woman’s Weekly.

Michèle first came to New Zealand’s attention in the 1980s as a host of What Now and then The Video Dispatch followed by myriad television appearances as both host and guest, plus many years of podcasts and web series like the award-nominated feminist series, On The Rag.

Michèle is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and a Life Member of the NZ Comedy Guild. She is Patron of “The Aunties” and also MHANZ which cares for the carers in the health sector, and she’s an Ambassador for Breast Cancer Cure .

Hot Tip: How to pronounce A’Court – it’s tricky, because it’s not the way people seem to want to say it, unless they are actually an A’Court. The ‘A’ is pronounced like the letter A (as in ABC) and the emphasis is heavy on that ‘A’. A-court. So it sounds a lot like ‘Acorn’. With a ‘t’ at the end, rather than an ‘n’. Obviously.